{"id":47799,"date":"2013-06-20T20:21:31","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T00:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2021-12-21T14:52:01","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T19:52:01","slug":"obama-declares-war-on-patent-trolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/obama-declares-war-on-patent-trolls\/","title":{"rendered":"POTUS Declares War on Patent Trolls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"POTUS<\/a>President Barack Obama<\/a> has declared that it is time to get tough on “patent trolling<\/strong>.”\u00a0Paul Marks<\/a> at New Scientist<\/em><\/a> writes<\/a> that when ordinary activities like using Wi-Fi in a coffee shop or updating smartphone apps provoke lawsuits you know something is seriously amiss with the legal system. Firms that buy up obvious patents that the US Patent and Trademark Office<\/a> (USPTO<\/strong>) should never have granted in the first place are called patent trolls according to the author.<\/p>\n

\"US<\/a>The troll then “asserts” these patents by threatening to sue businesses<\/strong> that infringe them. Many will then settle out of court and pay an often business-crippling license fee.<\/p>\n

As followers of Bach Seat<\/strong><\/a> know, there are a number of patent<\/a> troll<\/a> lawsuits<\/a> related to wireless.\u00a0 In 2011, Boston University’s<\/a> law school estimated<\/a> that dealing with patent trolling cost businesses in the US $29 billion (rb-<\/strong> which I originally covered here<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n

\"Seal<\/a>President Obama<\/strong> says the cash should have been spent on generating products, services, and jobs. So the White House<\/a> is asking Congress<\/a> to force the USPTO to narrow the scope of patents<\/strong> within the next six months so that whole fields cannot be trolled. Mr. Obama also wants to prevent patents from being asserted against the users<\/strong> of technologies, like coffee shops, rather than manufacturers. The White House says trolls will have to come clean about their identity, and not hide their “abusive litigation and settlement extraction” behind a thicket of shell companies.<\/p>\n

“This is a bold step forward by President Obama, and if these legislative proposals are enacted\u00a0the playing field will be leveled<\/em>,” Alan Schoenbaum, general counsel for the troll-fighting<\/a> web hosting firm Rackspace<\/a><\/strong> told New Scientist.<\/em> What’s crucial, Mr. Schoenbaum says, is that the President’s changes make sure trolls have something to lose when they fail in court. In essence, the U.S. legal system is unbalanced. In the UK, for instance, the loser pays<\/strong>. “That keeps frivolous lawsuits down to a minimum,<\/em>” he says. “But ‘loser pays’ is rare in the U.S.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

\"Rackspace<\/a>The author asks how can patent trolls be identified? Rackspace’s Schoenbaum says there are plenty of ways, “Trolls don’t invent, make or develop anything. Between 70 and 90% of their patents are software or business-method patents, and in virtually all cases the patent is invalid.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

But San Francisco-based, “patent buster<\/strong>” Gregory Aharonian, who invalidates patents by finding previous inventions using the same ideas, told New Scientist<\/em>\u00a0he thinks it will be trickier to identify\u00a0patent trolls. He told the author, “It is going to be\u00a0hard for Obama to deal with the troll definition problem … Anyone who asserts an invalid patent, under any conditions, is a troll.<\/em>” Mr. Aharonian says that some large technology firms behave like trolls when they assert overly broad or obvious patents<\/strong> they never exploit.<\/p>\n

The only move that will crush the troll phenomenon is vastly improved patent quality, Mr.\u00a0Aharonian says. “What upsets people \"Stack<\/a>more is not the assertion tactics, but the crap being asserted<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story barely had a full news cycle. The opportunity is dead and lost as the White House spin machine deals with the PRISM spying scandal<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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